What History Can Tell Us About Our Future

Community Colleges in North Carolina: What History Can Tell Us About Our Future by John Quinterno Executive Summary lthough sometimes overlooked training, and garnering public support Aas the poor cousin of elite lib- without prestigious reputations. Some are eral arts colleges and research new challenges — serving a diverse and non- universities, North Carolina’s community traditional student body and equipping a colleges have greatly contributed to the work force with the capacity to succeed in state’s emergence as one of America’s a service economy utterly divergent from fastest growing and most vibrant places the manufacturing economy which gave rise to live by providing higher education ac- to the system itself. When facing these old cess to any student. As in the past, the and new challenges, insights may be drawn community college system must cope with from the community colleges’ historical changing educational, social, and economic evolution. challenges. Some are old challenges — With the exception of a later start, the simultaneously maintaining “open door” development of community colleges in admissions and high-quality programs, North Carolina mirrored the national pat- remaining both affordable and fi nancially tern. Although North Carolina established afl oat, balancing vocational and academic Buncombe County Junior College in 1928, 58 North Carolina Insight it was not until after World War II that state state resident would live within 30 miles of industrialization efforts began in earnest, cre- a community college. By 1980, the system ating pressure for skilled laborers and wide- developed into 58 quasi-independent campuses spread community college access. Upon the with a separate State Board of Community war veterans’ return and the advent of the G.I. Colleges, which assumed the powers formerly Bill, the UNC system established 12 off-campus held by the State Board of Education. extension centers able to administer students’ In the 21st century, the N.C. Community fi rst two years of a four-year degree. These College System confronts profound economic centers eventually became junior colleges with and social change that will require the state their own state funding. once again to rethink the role of postsecondary The next major milestone came in 1955, when education and its link to economic prosperity. the General Assembly created the State Board North Carolina continues to evolve from a of Higher Education, which in turn helped manufacturing-based economy competing with develop the Community College Act of 1957. other states to one centered on the provision of Unfortunately, that legislation only addressed services within a globally competitive economy. the need for junior colleges and not the voca- These shifts have eliminated many of the jobs tional / technical education needed for industrial open to people with modest levels of formal recruitment. In 1958, the fi rst non-collegiate education — jobs that often paid low but liv- industrial education centers opened. ing wages, provided basic benefi ts like health Upon his election in 1961, the task of insurance, and offered upward mobility. piecing these fragments together into a uni- A sizable segment of North Carolina’s work fi ed system fell to Governor Terry Sanford. force, however, is unprepared to take advan- Sanford’s 25-member Carlyle Commission tage of the changes in our economy. Estimates studying postsecondary education devised a of all projected job growth between 2000 and state plan whose centerpiece recommendation 2010 indicate that 13 percent will require a was a statewide, coordinated system of compre- postsecondary vocational award or associate’s hensive community colleges. The Community degree, 21 percent will require a Bachelor of College Act of 1963 converted nearly all of Arts or higher degree, and 71 percent will the commission’s recommendations into law, require work-related training. Given its mis- creating a system with the primary goals of sion and history, the task of preparing North work force development, maintaining an “open Carolina’s work force likely will fall squarely door” admissions policy, keeping tuition as on the shoulders of the N.C. Community nearly free as possible, and ensuring that every College System. May 2008 59 drive along Trade Street, a long avenue running through the heart of Charlotte, showcases the Queen City’s transformation from a trading and trucking town into a major metropolitan area and banking and fi nancial A center. A road previously used by farmers traveling to market now passes alongside modern skyscrapers, upscale restaurants, stately public buildings, and a sleek basketball arena. And at its eastern end, where the street dips under I-277 and changes its name to Elizabeth Avenue, sits North Carolina’s largest institution of higher learning in terms of total enrollment: Central Piedmont Community College. Each year, some 70,000 students (nearly 13,000 are the equivalent of full-time students) participate in the various vocational, academic, developmental education, and customized training courses offered at Central Piedmont’s six campuses and through the Internet.1 The young adult studying for an associate’s degree in preparation to enter the work force or transfer to a university; the recent immigrant striving to learn English; the high-school dropout trying to fi nish school; the displaced worker hoping to launch a new career; the senior citizen wishing to learn something new — all of these individuals turn to Central Piedmont for their educational needs. The people educated and trained at Central Piedmont in turn have helped fuel Charlotte’s growth, a growth refl ected in the buildings that line Trade Street. Yet Central Piedmont is hardly unique. In different ways, each of the 58 institutions that constitute the N.C. Community College System has contributed to the state’s emergence as one of America’s fastest-growing and most vibrant places. Today, the N.C. Community College System and its component colleges — institutions founded chiefl y in the second half of the 20th century — are learning how best to meet the educational, social, and economic challenges of the 21st century. On one level, some of the challenges echo ones that have confronted the system since its founding: providing an open door to all students while maintaining high-quality programs; remaining affordable while staying fi nancially sound; balancing vocational training with academic instruction; and cultivating public support for schools regarded as less prestigious than four-year universities. Yet on another level, some of the challenges are new, like serving an increasingly diverse and nontraditional student population and preparing a work force capable of succeeding in a service economy radically different from the manufacturing one that gave rise to the system itself. Though each college will work out its own answers to such questions, insights into how to respond can be drawn from the N.C. Community College System’s short but fruitful history, a history that has produced one of America’s leading community college systems. The Community College: A Distinctly American Institution t fi rst glance, Central Piedmont’s Acentral campus on Elizabeth Avenue appears indistinguishable from any other institution of higher learning. A visitor to campus would find most John Quinterno is a public policy analyst residing in Chapel Hill, N.C. 60 North Carolina Insight of the amenities typically associated with a college: neat brick buildings, an elegant Academic and Performing Arts Center, public sculpture, and nonstop construction — everything but residence halls. Despite these superfi cial simi- For much of larities, Central Piedmont actually belongs to a radically different educational the nation’s history, tradition than the one that gave rise to liberal arts colleges and research uni- the vast majority of versities. While those institutions trace their roots back across the centuries to “ European antecedents, community colleges like Central Piedmont represent a Americans received distinctly 20th century, distinctly American tradition. little formal schooling. For much of the nation’s history, the vast majority of Americans received Most people attended little formal schooling. Most people attended local institutions that, prior to the local institutions that, rise of four-year high schools in the late 1800s, typically ended in the sixth or eighth grades. Only a few people would ever study at a university. This edu- prior to the rise of four- cational system, built for a predominantly agricultural society, was inadequate year high schools in th given the economic changes of the late 19 century. Rapid industrialization the late 1800s, typically created a need for workers with higher levels of skills and training, while robust ended in the sixth or population growth and a steady decline in child labor increased the number of people interested in additional education. Furthermore, at the same time that eighth grades. interest in vocational education was rising, American universities were searching for ways to shift responsibility for the fi rst two years of collegiate instruction down to other schools to free up time and resources for advanced teaching and research.2 ” Transcending all of these factors was a particularly American belief that “all individuals should have the opportunity to rise to their greatest potential” and that education was the best means of upward mobility.3 In response to greater demand for

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